Cook tax bills set off flurry of complaints

Cook County residents stunned by their tax bills wondered where to turn as the notices began arriving in the mail this week.

Ronald Bare, 71, of Mount Prospect was typical, even if his situation seemed fairly extreme. His annual tax bill went from $4,000 to $5,400, a 36 percent increase, and with the entire addition tacked on to the second installment due, that went from $2,000 to $3,400.

"As soon as I got it, I went over to the Elk Grove assessor's office, the township office, and complained to them," Bare said.

That's in many ways the correct course, not because the township assessor is responsible - he or she doesn't do assessments - but because as the county assessor's local representatives they're uniquely positioned to help with complaints, as Elk Grove Township Assessor Connie Carosielli states on her official Web site.

Dozens of people stormed the Schaumburg Township office Friday with their bills in hand, while others filled the voice-mail accounts of Assessor John Lawson.

"I think they're coming in to see if there are any problems with it," said Larry Weniger, Schaumburg Township administrator. It can be an impenetrable document, Weniger admitted, and they want to have someone else look it over to make sure they got any exemptions they were entitled to.

Don't blame Cook County Assessor James Houlihan, however. He doesn't set the tax rates or the total countywide tax levy, which went up 4.2 percent across Cook this year. Even so, Eric Herman, Houlihan's director of communications, admitted call volume has been very high in the assessor's office this week.

"This is a crisis," Herman said. "People are getting higher bills at a time when they're losing their jobs and struggling to make mortgage payments."

Many complaints came from homeowners whose taxes went up even as their assessments went down. In fact, Bare said his property - where he's lived for 37 years - was actually reassessed and devalued by 8 percent this year.

More likely, the higher bills have to do with local tax increases, combined with the phaseout of the so-called 7 percent homeowner's exemption across the county. The General Assembly has thus far rebuffed pleas to extend that program, including lobbying from Houlihan.

Still, overall, it made no sense to Bare.

"I don't know where they get off raising your tax bills like that," he said. "I don't know what you can do except call people and make it public."

"Has every taxing body in and around Hoffman Estates totally lost their minds?" Rodney Rusakiewicz wondered in an e-mail to the Daily Herald. He added that his bill went up about 25 percent. "What is going on? Where is the justification?"

"There's something wrong with the legislators and the people administering the system," Bare added, many of whom are up for re-election next year. "That's the program," Bare said. "That's why you let the public know."